Method of producing artificial furs of nonuniform fiber density

ABSTRACT

Artificial fur is produced having ridges or stripes of long fiber pile of varying density with short fiber pile of uniform density within the ridges. To achieve this, an ordinary Wildman Jacquard knitting machine is utilized having at least three doffer rolls for each yarn feed. Two of the doffer rolls are rotated several times during the passage before same of selected groups of needles and long fibers are fed to each of these doffer rolls at less than the capacity of the rolls to receive same. The other doffer roll is fed with short fibers in the conventional manner. The needles are selectively actuated to produce the stripes or ridges by removing fibers from the respective rolls.

United States Patent.

Collez, deceased [54] METHOD OF PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL FURS OF NONUNIFORM FIBER DENSITY 221 Filed: May 18,1970

[21] Appl.N0.: 38,073

Related uLs. Application Data [63] Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 598,402, Dec. 1,

1966, abandoned, which in turn is a continuation-inpart of Ser. No. 480,005, Aug. 16, 1965.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,413,823 12/1968 Beucus et al. ..66/9 B 1 Mar. 28, 1972 Primary E, taminer-Robert R. Mackey Attorney-Young & Thompson [5 7] ABSTRACT Artificial fur is produced having ridges or stripes of long fiber pile of varying density with short fiber pile of uniform density within the ridges. To achieve this, an ordinary Wildman Jacquard knitting machine is utilizedhaving at least three doffer rolls for each yarn feed. Two of the doffer rolls are rotated several times during the passage before same of selected groups of needles and long fibers are fed toeach of these doffer rolls at less than the capacity of the rolls to receive samev The other dofferroll is fed with short fibers in the conventional manner. The needles are selectively actuated to produce the stripes or ridges by removing fibers from the respective rolls.

1 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures PATENTEDMAR28 1972 3,651,664

SHEET 2 OF 3 rim PATENTEDMARza 1972 I 3.651.664

SHEET 3 0F 3 nmirmm YEW?- This invention relates to the production of artificial furs or so-called high pile" fabrics and is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 598,402, filed Dec. 1, 1966, now US. Pat. No. 3,516,265 issued June 23, 1970, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 480,005, filed Aug. 16, 1965 and now abandoned.

The present invention has for an object the production of ridged or ribbed high pile fabrics asan imitation of furs produced by the sewing together of small animal pelts, for instance, mink pelts, by the operation of known Wildman Jacquard type knitting machines. Such machines are more fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,953,002, Sept. 20, 1960; US. Pat. No. 2,964,932, Dec. 20, 1960; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,153,335, Oct. 20, 1964, whose disclosures are incorporated in the present specification by reference, so as to avoid the inclusion of unnecessary material.

Previously, attempts have been made to produce such fabrics by processes including the cutting of the pile of the artificial fur as regards height, but these processes are, in

general, complicated and the effect obtained resulting from a difference in length of the pile does not provide a successful imitation of all natural pelts. It has been noted that the result can be obtained not by varying the length but the density of the fur pile, this variation in density serving also for strengthening other effects already used in the artifical fur industry, such as rendering more easily visible pile simulating natural short hair of a pelt and/or the different color of the longer and less dense hair which projects beyond the short hair.

High pile knitted fabrics for artificial furs are those in which a base knitted fabric is supplemented by fibers incorporated in such a manner that the fibers are drawn into tufts at each stitch to project from one side of the knitted fabric. In the knitting machines for the manufacture of said high pile fabrics, a fiber stock in the form of roving is fed via pile fiberfeeding stations to the needles of a knitting machine, each needle receiving a tuft before knitting a base yarn, the tuft of fibers being caught in the knitted stitch.

It is well known, in order to provide designs on a high pile knitted fabric, to use a plurality of pile fiber feeding stations fed with rovings of different colors or fibers of different types arranged before the knitting point of the base yarn, the knitting machine being provided with so-called pattern wheels in order that the hooks of the needles catch a tuft on one or the other doffer rolls of said feeding stations so as to provide appliques on the high pile fabric. But in such a case, care was always taken to have tufts with as regular as possible a number of fibers.

In the copending Pat. application Ser. No. 598,402 filed on Dec. 1, 1966 is claimed a method for the production of ridges of varying density on artificial fur fabric by the operation of a Wildman Jacquard type knitting machine that has at least one doffer roll and means for feeding fibers to the doffer roll and needles movable past the doffer roll and selectively individually movable toward and away from the doffer roll to gather fibers from the doffer roll, the needles being arranged in a series which corresponds to the spacing of said ridges; the said method comprising feeding one doffer roll with short fibers and gathering said doffer roll with needles regularly spaced in all the series, rotating the other doffers roll at a speed such that it makes a plurality of rotations during the passage of said series of needles in front of the doffer roll, feeding long fibers to the doffer roll during each of said rotations at a rate less than the capacity of the doffer roll to receive fibers so that long fibers accumulate on the doffer roll in a layer at each turn and accumulate in plural superposed layers on at least a portion of said doffer roll during passage of said series of needles in front of the doffer roll, and moving the other needles of said series in such a sequence that plural successive groups of needles each comprised of a plurality of adjacent successive needles separated by the former ones in said series gather different numbers of layers of long fibers from the doffer roll, the doffer roll accumulating long fibers thereon during the passage of non-selected groups of needles whereby the surface of the doffer roll as it rotates from said fiber feeding means to said needles has thereon a coating of fibers having helically delineated portions which differ from each other as to the number of layers of fibers by which each said portion is comprised.

In said patent application was described the possibility to combine the process claimed with other processes so as to obtain ridged or ribbed high pile fabrics as an imitation of furs having short pile simulating natural short hair of an even density and long pile of a variable density forming the ribs.

As indicated in said former application, it is possible to intercalate between the needles to which is applied the process, and which will show a variation in the density of the fibers, needles which are equally charged with different fibers, preferably shorter fibers, so as to form a regular short pile under long pile forming ridges.

The present invention has for its object a process which permits of obtaining artificial furs or high pile knitted fabrics having a short pile background and vertical ridges or ribs obtained by varying the density of a longer pile.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a method of working a known Wildman Jacquard knitting machine provided with a plurality of feed devices having pattern wheels for each chute of base yarn i.e., each yarn feed so as to realize high pile knitted fabrics having a short pile background and vertical ridges or ribs of a longer pile.

Other characteristics in accordance with the invention will appear from the following description taken in connection with the annexed drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a known Wildman Jacquard knitting machine with three fiber-feeding devices for each chute, to which the process of this invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic top plan view of the machine of FIG. 1, the carding drums and pattern wheels being removed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining the process of the invention applied to the knitting machine of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4A and 41 are diagrams explaining the gathering of fibers from the doffer rolls by the needles forming the ridges or ribs.

Now referring to FIG. 1, the invention is applied to a knitting machine of the so-called Wildman Jacquard type having a needle cylinder 1, circular base 2, and needles 3. The shank 4 of the needles 3 has a peripheral lug 5 which slides in one of the grooves 6 in a cam cylinder 7 Another lug 8 at the lower part of the needle shank cooperates with the butts 9 of a so-called pattern wheel 10 rotatably carried by the circular base 2 and driven by the rotation of the needle cylinder through gear wheels 11. Said butts 9 may be in a projecting position 90 or in an inactive position 9b. When a butt raises through the lug 8 the needle to its raised or gathering position, the lug 5 is engaged in the upper groove 6a of the cam cylinder 7. When no butt is present, the corresponding needle is in its lowered position and its lug 5 moves in the lower groove 6b of the cam cylinder.

On the circular base 2 of the machine are mounted carding mechanisms or fiber-feeding devices, the machine comprising three such feeding devices for each base yarn 12 feeding chute l3. Said fiber-feeding devices are radially mounted at the periphery of the needle cylinder and in front of each of them the cam cylinder 7 comprises an upper groove portion 60 (FIG. 3).

Each fiber-feeding device comprises feeding cylinders 14 feeding a roving 15 of fibers to a carding drum l6 rotated in the direction of the arrow A. Working cylinders 17 at the periphery of said carding drum equalize the fibers on the periphery of said carding drum. A doffer roll 18a, and 18b or with a card clothing takes up the fibers from the carding drum, and the needles 3 in their raised position take a tuft of fibers therefrom. Now the feeding of the carding drum 16 being constant, said carding drum provides for a constant feeding of its doffer roll 18a, 18b or 18c, i.e. the doffer roll will receive at each turn a substantially constant charge of fibers. If no gathering occurs, the charges will accumulate at each turn. If, on a doffer roll very heavily charged with fibers, the many successive needles are moved into the gathering position, the first needles will take up a maximum charge and progressively the doffer roll will only be supplied with a feed charge; and, if this latter corresponds to a needle charge lower than the maximum charge which a needle may keep when gathering said doffer roll, there will be a progressive reduction in the charge of the different needles.

The process consists therefore in using several feeding devices, three in the example as described, for a same chute 13. The feeding cylinders of one of said feeding devices, the first one or short pile feeding device, feeds a roving of short fibers to a carding drum rotated in the direction of the arrow A. The pattern wheel of said feeding device is regulated in such a way that sequential needles of the row e.g. one out of two forming a first series gather the first short pile doffer roll 18a so that the needles of said series are evenly charged with short fibers.

Regarding the two other feeding devices, the pattern wheels 10 are so regulated that the other remaining needles e.g. one out of two forming the second series are distributed in successive groups and gather for one group on a second doffer roll 18b and for the following group on a third doffer roll 180 with a repetition of the cycle. During the'passage in front of each fiber-feeding device of groups of needles for long fibers in the lower position, the doffers rolls 18b and 180 will be charged with long fibers and will then be progressively stripped in the course of the passage of the long fibers needles in the upper position.

In short, long fibers are fed to the doffer roll at substantially less than the capacity of the doffer roll to receive fibers. The doffer roll for long fibers is rotated several times during the passage of the series of needles, and the needles are selectively moved so that different groups of needles will remove different numbers of layers of long fibers from the doffer roll.

FIGS. 4A to 4] illustrate this operation of the doffer roll for long fibers. In said figures the doffer roll 18b of one feeding device has contact along the line aa with the carding drum 16 and both are shown as planes which move in the direction of the arrows F and F at equal speeds. Said figures correspond to the state of the fiber charge on the doffer roll at spaces of time corresponding to the passage of successive needles in front of a point on the periphery of the needle cylinder. The number of needles is reduced so as to clarify the drawings, and it is supposed that each group comprises eight needles, between which are intercalated eight needles for short fibers.

Let 2p be the number of needles corresponding to a band (in FIGS. 4, 2p is equal to 16) and N the number of needles of the cylinder, these N needles are divided into n groups P, P P, P, in such a manner that N 2pn. If the case of three doffers rolls feeding the same chute 13 is considered, the pattern wheels 10 will be regulated so that the doffer roll 18a fed with short fibers feeds one needle out of two for the whole of the N needles, that the doffer roll 18b feeds the other needles of the groups I P P etc., and the doffer roll 180 will feed the needles not feed by the doffer roll 18a of the even groups P, P P etc. Thus after the passage in front of the three feeding devices, all the needles of the cylinder will have received fibers, the odd ones short fibers and the even ones long fibers and one can proceed to the throwing over and formation of the stitch.

Referring now to the FIGS. 4 the odd needles 3,, have gathered the doffer roll 18a and as the gathering is regular and gathering line b-b of the raised needles, the charge of long fibers on the card clothing of the dofier roll will be equal to thrice the single charge. As the needles gather fibers from the card clothing following a helical path, the charge on the doffer roll will be repartited on helical surfaces. and just before the first long fiber gathering even needle 3 of the group P reaches the doffer roll (FIG. 4A), the charge on the dofier roll comprises a surface s, with a unitary charge, a surface s, with twice the unitary charge, and a surface which will be gathered by the needle 3, and which has a charge equal to thrice the unitary charge, and said surfaces are displaced towards the right of the figures when the doffer roll 18b and carding drum 16 rotate (see FIGS. 4A to 4H). Supposing now that each gathering needle removes all the long fibers from the gathered carding cloth over a width equal to the distance between three successive needles ie two successive long fibers gathering needles, after passing the gathering line b-b, surface s gathered by needles 3 to 3 will become a surface s having no long fiber on it until it reaches line aa (FIGS. 4D to 4I) where it will take up a unitary charge from the carding drum giving a surface s,, with a single unitary charge which will be gathered by the needles 3 to 3 of the group P to become a surface :3 having no fiber on it. Accordingly the needles 3 to 3 of each group will catch tufts having a mean number of long fibers thrice that of needles 3 to 3 The relationship between the doffer 18c and the selected needles associated therewith is similar to that between doffer 18b and its selected needles.

It can be seen that the speed of rotation of the doffers rolls 18b and 18c plays an important role. However, variation in the density of the fur hair will result from the passage of several needles following the same trajectory over the doffer roll, which variation is produced by stages, and the speed of the doffer roll should, for a regular removal, be equal to a whole number of turns during the passage of p needles in front of a point.

The artificial fur obtained will have a uniform short pile with long pile forming ridges in which the mean number of long fibers will vary.

Also, the invention is not limited to bands or ridges of equal width.

The embodiments described above can have many modifications without departing from the scope of the present invention.

I claim:

1. In a method for the production of ridges of varying density on artificial fur fabric by the operation of a Wildman Jacquard-type knitting machine that has at least three doffer rolls for each yarn feed, means for feeding fibers to the doffer rolls and needles movable past the doffer rolls and selectively individually movable toward and away from selected doffer rolls to gather fibers therefrom, rotating one of said doffer rolls and feeding short fibers thereon and moving every alternate needle constituting a first series of needles to gather short fibers therefrom so that the needles of the first series are evenly charged with short fibers, the intervening needles constituting a second series of needles, the second series of needles being arranged in a plurality of groups which correspond to the spacing of said ridges, rotating at least two other selected doffer rolls and feeding long fibers to said selected rolls during each rotation thereof at a rate less than the capacity of each selected doffer roll to receive fibers, each of said selected doffer rolls accumulating fibers thereon during the passage of a non-selected group of needles of said second series whereby the surface of each of said selected doffer rolls as it rotates from said long fiber feeding means to said needles has thereon a coating of long fibers having helically delineated portions which differ from each other as to the number of layers of long fibers by which each said portion is comprised, moving a selected group of needles of said second series of needles to gather different number of layers of long fibers from one of the selected doffer rolls, and moving another selected group of needles of said second series of needles to the latter needles of the group gather fibers from a single layer to produce a substantial variation in fiber density therebetween whereby ridges of long fiber pile of varying density are produced having a layer of short fiber pile of even density within the ridges. 

1. In a method for the production of ridges of varying density on artificial fur fabric by the operation of a Wildman Jacquardtype knitting machine that has at least three doffer rolls for each yarn feed, means for feeding fibers to the doffer rolls and needles movable past the doffer rolls and selectively individually movable toward and away from selected doffer rolls to gather fibers therefrom, rotating one of said doffer rolls and feeding short fibers thereon and moving every alternate needle constituting a first series of needles to gather short fibers therefrom so that the needles of the first series are evenly charged with short fibers, the intervening needles constituting a second series of needles, the second series of needles being arranged in a plurality of groups which correspond to the spacing of said ridges, rotating at least two other selected doffer rolls and feeding long fibers to said selected rolls during each rotation thereof at a rate less than the capacity of each selected doffer roll to receive fibers, each of said selected doffer rolls accumulating fibers thereon during the passage of a non-selected group of needles of said second series whereby the surface of each of said selected doffer rolls as it rotates from said long fiber feeding means to said needles has thereon a coating of long fibers having helically delineated portions which differ from each other as to the number of layers of long fibers by which each said portion is comprised, moving a selected group of needles of said second series of needles to gather different number of layers of long fibers from one of the selected doffer rolls, and moving another selected group of needles of said second series of needles to gather different number of layers of long fibers from another of said selected doffer rolls, each selected doffer roll making a plurality of rotations during the passage of the selected group of needles of the second series of needles and the number of selected needles in the selected group of the second series for each selected doffer roll being such that the first needles of the group gather long fibers from a desired number of layers and the latter needles of the group gather fibers from a single layer to produce a substantial variation in fiber density therebetween whereby ridges of long fiber pile of varying density are produced having a layer of short fiber pile of even density within the ridges. 